​Israel pushing law to allow force-feeding of Palestinian hunger strikers

Palestinians hold pictures of prisoners during a demonstration in support of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails, in the West Bank city of Ramallah June 7, 2014.(Reuters / Mohamad Torokman) / Reuters

The Israeli prime minister is pushing for the approval of a bill that will allow doctors to force-feed up to 120 Palestinian prisoners. Inmates are hunger striking in protest of their indefinite detention and say they are ready to die for their cause.

Although the bill is opposed by the Israeli Medical Association
on the grounds it is a violation of medical ethics, the Knesset
voted for the legislation to be sent to a committee. The measure
would allow a judge to enact force-feeding if he or she thinks
the detainee’s life might be in danger.

Between 100 and 120 inmates are currently participating in the
hunger strike to protest their indefinite detention without any
charges.

Around 70 of the strikers are receiving medical attention as
their health has significantly deteriorated through the course of
the strike. The protesters want the Israeli practice of
administrative detention to be abolished as it allows for the
indefinite detention of an individual for renewable, six-month
terms without charges.

Detainees wrote a letter to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club
detailing their treatment, which was obtained by Haaretz. They
claim the medical professionals treating the 70 strikers in
hospital are cooperating with the prisons, alleging some
detainees were chained to their hospital beds.

“The nurses, who are supposed to be angels of mercy, come
into our rooms with food to break our spirits, but we will not
give up until we accomplish our goal, and we are willing to die
for it,” the detainees wrote. “Each one of us has
already written his will, and we have sworn that there is no way
back.”

Qadoura Fares, chairman of the Palestinian Prisoners Club said
that if the new legislation passes, it will not deter prisoners
from striking. He added that forced feeding could kill prisoners,
referencing the deaths of two Palestinian prisoners in 1980.

The UN has intervened and called for all of the inmates
held under administrative detention to either be released or
charged.

“The secretary-general is concerned about reports regarding
the deteriorating health of Palestinian administrative detainees
who have been on hunger strike for over a month,” UN Chief
Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement,
urging for the inmates to be released or charged without delay.
The United Nations human rights office condemns the practice of
force-feeding and classifies it as a form of torture.

The Israeli government, however, argues otherwise. Last week
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was confident that
force feeding would be instated to curtail the crisis, citing the
US government’s use of the technique in Guantanamo Bay on
striking detainees. Netanyahu is acting on the recommendations of
security officials who have argued that negotiating with the
strikers would only open the door to more hunger strikes in
Israeli prisons.

“We want to give the government more tools. You can’t have a
situation where prisoners who are in jail for a very good reason
will use the threat of a hunger strike to receive a ‘get out of
jail free’ card,” said an anonymous official familiar with
the matter to the Bellingham Herald.

Last month the US saw its first Court ruling, calling for a halt
to force feeding at Guantanamo Bay. Judge Gladys Kessler of the
US district court for the District of Columbia suspended enteral
feeding on inmate Abu Wa'el Dhiab. However, she ruled the
practice be resumed a week later because the inmate’s life was in
danger.

The US government says the practice is only employed at
Guantanamo when prisoners are at risk of dying.